Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a harness or breast collar for attaching a leash to a domestic animal or pet such as a dog.
More particularly, the invention concerns a harness of the type comprising a first strap portion extending under the animal belly, a second strap portion extending under the animal neck, and an upper strap portion joining together the ends of such straps, generally in a releasable manner, thus providing an anchoring point for attaching the leash.
As it is known harnesses or breast collars are generally assembled by joining together portions of leather or nylon straps by means of fasteners such as for example rings, plates or clips made of metal or plastic.
These harnesses are built with different dimensions to fit dogs of different size, and generally comprise systems for adjusting the length of the straps for properly fitting the harness to a given animal for preventing the animal from accidentally getting free without unduly limiting the animal movements with a too tight harness.
A known adjustable animal harness is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,247,905. The disclosed harness comprises a belly or body strap and a front strap the ends of which are joined together by metal plates provided with slits, a lower strap to be located between the animal legs and connecting the belly strap with the front strap, and an upper connecting member joining said two connecting plates and provided with a ring for the attachment of a leash.
Both the lengths of the belly and the front straps can be adjusted. To this aim each strap is provided at one end with a strap adjustment system having a slidably movable buckle for folding back a portion of the strap in order to shorten its length.
Such adjustment system is asymmetric since the length of a strap can be adjusted only at one of its ends and as a consequence of either a shortening or a lengthening operation, the lower connecting strap moves out from the optimum position that is centred between the animal legs.
On this account in the known harnesses of this type the lower connecting strap that joins the belly strap with the front strap is not fixed, but rather is free to slide along the straps to which it is connected.
Apparently this trick solves the above mentioned problem, but nevertheless it brings about other inconveniences. Namely when the harness is fitted to a dog, the connecting strap can be wrongly positioned, for example laterally displaced, thus either slowing down the harness application, or negatively affecting a proper fitting, and therefore the harness safety, if the user does not realise the wrong position of the strap.